How to prepare ds for sleepovers

[Pocoyo123]

DS is just 8. He wet the bed for years but last year we used an alarm and he has now been (mostly) dry for over 6 months. His friends are all having sleepovers, and there's a cubs sleepover soon, and he's keen to join them. But, he gets up to go to the loo 2 or 3 times during the night. At home this is fine - he makes his own way to the toilet and then just returns to bed. I am not so confident he will do that at someone else's house (as he's usually half asleep and won't necessarily remember where the toilet is).

I have read on here before about tablets which stop the need to wee. Would this be a viable option for ds?

I would prefer not to use medication, but equally don't want him to miss out on sleepovers. It could become embarrassing for him if I have to keep making excuses.

Any advice gratefully received.

Hi there, I'm not sure about the tablets, I haven't heard about them, if I was in your position I think the only thing you could do is to have a discreet chat with the mum or dad who is hosting the sleepover and ask them to not give drinks after a certain time and to urge him to go to the loo before bed. If not, maybe make an excuse this time and have them over to stay with you next time so he's not missing out on all the fun, you can have a bit more control over it at home?

We had similar. I made sure her first sleepover was with someone I knew very well and I asked them to make sure she knew where the loo was and that it was ok to go as much as she needed. We started this before she went way o nt tips and so far, so good. She's now ten , we haven't had a wet bed for a couple of years.

Thanks. The mothers would be understanding (they know we used the alarm) but I am also sure that he will wet the bed because he wouldn't get up for the toilet. I was hoping something would stop him physically needing to see during the night. It doesn't seem to make any difference how much he drinks after 4pm either.

Does that just come with age - not needing to get up?

I think the tablets are desmopressin.

Not sure I'm explaining well but I'll have a go, after a certain age children start producing a hormone which slows down wee production overnight, so they are less likely to need to get up to the loo. If children aren't making it yet that could be a reason why they wet, the desmopressin replaces the hormone, hence less wee and less chance of wetting.

I think some people seem to be able to use it here and there, although we were advised we'd need to do 3 months at a time, with occasional weeks off to see if DS still needed it. Although for DS it never seemed to make any difference so we stopped it.

The GP did issue the prescription but only after we had the details from the continence nurse. As far as I remember we were refered by the school nurse initially.

As someone who takes kids away for trips regularly, it's a rare trip when we don't have a child in pull ups, or the odd wet sleeping bag. There are usually ways to sort it discretely.